


Coffee in Boston

by Sol1t41r3



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, One Shot, Post-Canon, fluff (sort of?), i literally dont know what falafel is, no falafel!?!?!?? gaSP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 17:46:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13276665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sol1t41r3/pseuds/Sol1t41r3
Summary: Magnus and Alex get coffee downtown. Magnus ponders about stuff meanwhile Alex really just wants coffee.





	Coffee in Boston

**Author's Note:**

> literally this is probably the cheesiest thing ive ever written like ever. i also worked so hard to write with a jokey way, just for you magnus, just for you

Alex Fierro is admittedly a force to be reckoned with; a completely deadly gender fluid whirlwind and everyone in Hotel Valhalla knew it. After the quests to retrieve Thor’s hammer back and to stop Loki from sailing off in Naglfar, I could say that she’s pretty great.  And battle training--the worst time of the day in my opinion, but it was probably Alex’s favorite time since she gets to kick some einherji butt. Scratch that, I mean she gets to decapitate einherjar to her heart’s content. This in hindsight should sound pretty violent to me, but hey! It’s Valhalla.

What I’m trying to say is that Alex Fierro is a badass and should probably hang out with people less dorky and less lame than me.

Though that didn’t stop Alex from almost busting down my door on one fine day just to ask--ahem, command me to go get coffee with her. I didn’t know what was with the sudden outburst but thankfully I had no scheduling conflicts so I accepted the offer. (Even though I didn’t really have any say in it.)

I wore my ever-present neck chain with Jack’s pendant because who knows when some random monster might pop out and attack you? As a certified einherji I expect this to happen all the time. The wait ‘til Ragnarok really can’t be peaceful, can it? Oh well, one can only hope.

Taking one last look around my room, I step outside into the hallway and accidently bump into T.J.. Actually, it was more like T.J. almost ran me over because it felt like a car slamming into me. T.J. took a surprised step back, “Sorry, Magnus!” I was only winded by the impact so it wasn’t too bad. It felt like a short asthma attack if asthma attacks were caused by accidental body slams.

“No problem. What’s the rush?” I say, slightly wheezing. Oof.

“Just a meeting with someone. Where are you headed?”  T.J. replies, anxiously adjusting the rifle on his back. Geez, he’s in a hurry.

“Out.” I decide to leave the part where I was getting coffee with Alex because I probably never would have heard the end of it, especially since I announced on Naglfar, the Ship of Nails that I enjoyed a private kiss with Alex when we were freezing to death.

Yeah, it’s for the best that I leave the ‘Alex’ part out.

T.J. nods at my reply and excuses himself. I run over to the elevators, not wanting to keep Alex waiting because she’ll probably be ready to kick my ass by now. But sadly even in the afterlife, there is elevator traffic, even with the numerous amounts of elevators around the hotel. I stay squished in the corner for minutes until we reach the ground floor.

I wiggle my way out of cheesy elevator music and claustrophobia. There should really be more elevators at Hotel Valhalla. I see Alex is standing by the reception desk, talking to Hunding the bellhop as he mopped the floor.

 Alex notices me and she doesn’t look too happy. I try to hurry towards her but as I do, I take in her outfit of the day. It’s nothing special; she wore the same outfit she was wearing the day she got into Hotel Valhalla. The outfit was one I had seen many times, it could be classified as Alex’s casual but that didn’t stop my heart from suspiciously beating ten times faster like I was having a heart attack.

“What took you so long? Hunding’s mopped the entire floor clean by now.” Alex scowls, her dark brown and light amber eyes flashing in the ghostly lighting of the enormous lobby.

Hunding looks up from his mopping, giving me a look as if emphasizing Alex’s point. I can’t help but feel nervous.

“Um.. Traffic?” I reply, trying to act casual by shoving my hands into my pants pockets. Alex rolls her eyes.

“Whatever. Let’s go. See you, Hunding.” She turns around, tossing the last part to Hunding who waved goodbye. That turned out better than expected.

And so we head on our merry way to the Thinking Cup. The one on Tremont Street this time because I wasn’t taking my chances on Big Boy--or Utgard-Loki giving us a visit again. Maybe there was a secret informant Alex didn’t talk to me about, maybe that’s why she wanted to go get coffee. Or maybe it’s just paranoia talking right now and Alex Fierro actually just wants to go get coffee with me. Either way, I was still anxious.

Being an einherji does that to you. It’s so killer.

During the walk, I can’t help but notice the reduced amount of homeless youth in the alleyways we walk past. It’s been weeks since the Chase Space has been open to the homeless kids. Of course, not all the kids stay. Sometimes they only stay for one night and never return, they come back from time to time or they just ask for supplies and leave. Some became permanents; we had to clean out a lot of rooms for those guys and we also made rules.

My mind wanders to Blitz and Hearth, when the mansion opened they put aside Blitzen’s Best, keeping it closed for a few days until they had an actual schedule to follow. I kind of felt guilty about that but they told me it was fine. I didn’t want them to handle the work alone so I came by, sometimes staying for days or just dropping in to say hi. Our Floor Nineteen Family also helped with the mansion when I had told them about it, same with Sam and Amir.

Thinking about all this stuff makes me miss the mansion, even if I’d just been there two days ago. But just the whole big concept of it, the things we accomplished? It wasn’t that bad. It made me proud of what I’d done.

My gaze steers to Alex who’s walking just ahead. Sometimes I wonder about what she thinks of the whole operation. I mean, she does help. Alex knows what it’s like on the streets and how hard it is. Does she approve of it? I guess she does because she helps us and she’s open to all the kids in the mansion. Geez, the kids love Alex.

 All I really know is that I’d done something good and everyone else seems to think it’s good.

“I’ll get us a table, you order.” Alex’s voice breaks through my thoughts; I blink at her and realize that we’re already in front of the Thinking Cup.

“What do you want?” I ask her as we enter the café. The bitter smell of coffee and cooked pastries hit my nose, I almost feel like drooling. She scans the menu that’s displayed behind the counters.

“Regular old coffee and a blueberry muffin. I don’t see how you can mess that up, Maggie.” She looks like she’s in a better mood than before so I don’t say anything. Alex walks over to one of the booths and sits down on the couch.

I get to ordering our coffee and snacks. Soon enough, my wait is done and I walk to our booth, trying hard to balance the tray. No one wants to spill their coffee or their muffins on the floor. That’s just unfair when you’ve saved the world from Ragnarok two times.

Alex snickers at me when I lay the tray on the table. “The look on your face when you were walking over here made it seem like the flyting was easy as Hel.” She grabs her blueberry muffin, nibbling on it.

I sit down across from her, “Yeah, walking over here was really more life-threatening than the flyting, really. Shrinking to almost two feet? Psh, that’s nothing.” I smile, taking my scone and eating it slowly.

Somehow, it all feels normal. All those threats from Ragnarok seemed like memories to laugh about and totally not dangerous. The quiet café music and the bustling of the kitchen behind me are all I hear and Alex is all I see. However the serenity only lasts a few seconds because Alex is a merciless being.

“You’re staring again.” She notes, finishing off her muffin and moving onto her steaming coffee. I quickly look away, feeling the warmth creeping up on my cheeks. Alex rarely points it out but when she does, I always wish that I had her shape-shifting powers so I could turn into a turtle and hide inside my shell. Staring’s a bad habit, Magnus, so why do you keep doing it?

“Uh, sorry. You know, I was just spacing out, really.” I grab for any kind of excuse. That one was partly the truth! It was a lame excuse, I know but what else would I really say?

Alex smirks, her two-colored eyes regarding me like some dangerous predator that’s ready to spring. I’d be more comfortable being stared at by Fenris Wolf. Alex was terrifyingly intimidating like that, but I managed not to jump out of my seat and run around, screaming.

Jack’s pendant--which was silently since I was in the hotel, suddenly hums to life, warmth bursting from it. Under normal circumstances it would mean that some monster was around and that Jack could sense it or maybe I was in danger but this time it seemed to mean a completely different thing.

I silently curse Jack for his comedic bad timing. Was it even comedic? I’ll never know.

Suddenly, I can’t handle the silence and embarrassment anymore so I try to break the ice, “So uh, Chase Space.” Geez, that sounds so cringey when I say it. Alex raises an eyebrow, sipping from her cup.

“What about it?”

“Do you like it?” My blabbering mouth continues and Alex looks at me with a mixture of amusement and confusion in her two-colored eyes. A Magnus-is-being-stupid-again alert goes off in my head, wee-woo, wee-woo.

Alex leans back on the couch, I feel her feet hit mine as she stretches. “The Chase Space? Why wouldn’t I?” She frowns as if the thought of not liking the Chase Space seems utterly alien to her.

I shrug, casually not moving my feet away from hers. “I don’t know.. I was just kind of wondering about it..”

She makes a tsk-tsk sound, “Maggie, the Chase Space is probably the best thing I’ve seen someone do.” Then she leans forward, “Besides, taking care of homeless kids isn’t that bad. Why are you even asking?”

At her words, I feel sort of speechless. It’s the best thing she’s seen someone do? I try to figure out if there’s some underlying joke there but there’s not. It seemed entirely... Genuine. It really looked like she liked what I’d done. What we’d all done. That realization sets off a warmth in my chest, the same warmth I’d felt when Alex kissed me back on that freezing death march to Thunder Home and when he'd kissed me a second time that chocolate-covered night.

“Oh.” Is all I can say and Alex’s lips twitch.

“I think you should finish your coffee, it’s probably cold already.”

I realize that she’s right and I frown at the waste of a good hot coffee, but I get to drinking.

We spend a few more minutes in comfortable silence until Alex finally finishes her coffee. She somehow was able to keep it warm for an absurdly long amount of time, I call it magic.

“You remember the day we opened?” Alex says, out of the blue and staring off into who-knows-where. My mind answered her, ‘Yeah, but I doubt you’re remembering the same things I am.’

Instead I nod which was a stupid thing to do considering she wasn’t even looking at me. But Alex’s lips curl into a small smile, as she seemingly recounts memories. Then under the table she starts playing footsie with me, I happily participate. I close my eyes and lean back on my chair.

The first kids who moved in were great, though they were skeptical and sort of afraid. I would be too if two random people, one of them being a terrifying amalgamation of green and pink, decided to offer me a place to stay. I would’ve ran away in abject terror.

But we held a party for the kids that day. It was Independence Day, there was gonna be a ton of fireworks so we said ‘Why not?’. It was kind of like an opening celebration for the mansion after years of being lived in by Randolph. That was when I realized that all things could have a rebirth, even the lonely mansion of my dead uncle.

And Alex. Alex who held my hand as we sat back and relaxed on the lounge chairs, watching the fireworks that set off in the night. Alex who’s playing footsie with me right now under the table.

I open eyes and sigh, she turns to me, meeting my gaze. I could see that she was also thinking about that. Jack’s pendant grows ever warmer.

But the moment is broken once she asks, “You wanna visit?” I immediately know where she’s talking about. I guess it wouldn’t hurt.

“Sure.” I reply. Alex retracts her feet as she scoots out of the booth. I stand up from my chair, feeling the ache of my butt for sitting too long.

As I follow Alex out the front door, I wonder what kind of moment we had back there. It must’ve been something right? Or maybe I’m overthinking again.

I’m too caught up in my thoughts to notice that she’s walking beside me now. Then in a shy and completely un-Alex way, she takes my hand and laces it with hers. My heart does a tiny tap-dance. Dear gods, it was dangerous for me to be in Boston right now. I’m probably spontaneously combusting as I think of this, Alex was going to kill me permanently even if it wasn’t Ragnarok yet. That situation doesn’t seem so surprising.

But despite that, the smile on my face couldn’t be erased even by the gods themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> CHEESE!!!!!!! MANGO CHEESE, I SAY!
> 
> also my first mcga fic so forgive me if its a bit ooc, id appreciate it if you maybe i dunno commented if i got their character a tad bit wrong.


End file.
